- The world hydroelectric power plants have a combined capacity of 675,000 megawatts that produces over 2.3 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
The building of the dam is virtually only expense - low maintenance
The electricity being generated is constant
The expenses of builiding the dams can be split by many other departments such as flood control and irrigation
Energy from water is ultimately renewable
Hydro electric energy is very useful in mountainous terrains because of the amount of rivers leading to lakes and standing water
If water is slow flowing it can be easily harnessed and saved
No pollution
CONS
Very expensive to build dams
Building dams requires the flooding of heavily forested areas and this flooding causes the death of the vegetation in those flooded areas.
If the dead vegetation is left in the lake it will begin to emit methane as it decays
Building dams can displace many people who live in the flooding area
Dams quite often displace and disrupt the natural flow of life for local fish
Dams also disrupt the travel of fish, however, now “fish ladders” are being built on dams so that fish can successfully cross the dams, although the success of these “fish ladders” has come into question in the past few years
HOW HYDROELECTRIC POWER WORKS
PROS
CONS